DECEMBER 20, 2024 |
Photo – Carbon County Comet logo – Courtesy Carbon County Comet
The Board of Commissioners, this week, selected The Carbon County Comet as the county’s official publication for legal notices in 2025.
Earlier this month, the Board of Carbon County Commissioners was set to choose a newspaper to publish the county’s official advertisements.
Wyoming state law 18-3-519 requires that all legal notices be published in a newspaper that has printed at least one edition every week for a year and has a minimum circulation of five hundred paid customers.
Three newspapers submitted bids to become the official publication of Carbon County: The Rawlins Times, The Carbon County Comet, and The Saratoga Sun, which held the role in 2024.
The Saratoga Sun bid $5.75 per column inch for print ads and said it has 807 physical paper and 217 online subscriptions. The Carbon County Comet requested $5.85 per column inch and reported having 142 physical and 491 online subscriptions. Finally, The Rawlins Times submitted three different prices depending on the type of advertisement: $10 per column inch for classifieds, $16.40 for standard ads, and $4.99 for legal ads. The newspaper listed a total of 611 paid subscriptions.
Saratoga Sun Operations Director Joshua Wood argued that, according to his interpretation of state law, a publication must have 500 paid print subscribers to be considered an official legal newspaper. With only 142 physical subscribers, he said the Carbon County Comet does not meet this requirement.
Additionally, Wood said the United States Postal Service requires an official publication to deliver at least half of its copies to people who request them. Considering that most copies of The Comet are found for free around the county, Wood argued that his business rival does not meet the legal requirements to become Carbon County’s official newspaper.
For those reasons, Wood said The Comet should be considered a free publication, which is not eligible to serve as a legal publication.
The Carbon County Comet is relatively new, beginning operations in mid-2023, making this the first full year it has been in publication. Publisher Mike Armstrong argued that his newspaper is now qualified to publish legal notices under state law.
Armstrong said both, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray and his legal counsel, agree that the Comet meets the definition of a legal newspaper.
The Secretary of State told Bigfoot 99, after our story first aired two weeks ago, that the Wyoming “statute speaks for itself and I don’t think the Wyoming Press Association, and certainly not the Saratoga Sun, should decide what is official state law.”
The Rawlins Times did not have a representative present at the meeting to speak on behalf of the newspaper.
The county commissioners appeared to be leaning toward The Comet. Despite the higher bid price, Commissioner Garrett Irene pointed to The Comet’s larger reach. Unlike the Saratoga Sun, which focuses mainly on the Platte Valley, The Comet is distributed around the entire county.
In an unexpected move, Saratoga Sun Operations Director Wood approached the board and offered to lower his price by 25 cents per column inch if the county selects his newspaper.
Following a legal review, County Attorney Ashley Davis said the board may accept Wood’s new bid but should extend the same opportunity to the other two newspapers. Attorney Davis recommended asking for another round of bids from all three publications before making a decision.
The board of commissioners took Attorney Davis’s recommendation, voting to postpone a decision until after all three newspapers were given an opportunity to submit a new round of bids.
During Tuesday’s Carbon County Commissioners meeting, the board prepared to open the new set of sealed bids. Commission Chairwoman Sue Jones made it clear that, unlike last time, the board will not engage in a lengthy discussion. Whichever newspaper offers the lowest bid will serve as the county’s official publication for the new year.
County Clerk Gwynn Bartlett explained that she contacted all three newspapers, but only The Saratoga Sun and Carbon County Comet submitted new bids. The board considered the original bid from The Rawlins Times, which was higher on average than its two competitors.
Clerk Bartlett said that she does not agree with spending tens of thousands of dollars advertising in physical newspapers when online ads are less expensive and just as effective at spreading information.
In the new round of bids, the Saratoga Sun lowered its price from $5.75 per column inch to $5.50. Clerk Bartlett mentioned that The Sun also offered a discount if the county agrees to advertise in The Rawlins Times as well. However, due to the increased cost, the county clerk urged against it.
The Carbon County Comet lowered its bid from $5.85 per column inch to $5.40.
Because The Comet offered the lowest price, the board voted to select The Carbon County Comet to serve as the county’s official legal newspaper for 2025.
